Computer Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: Coroutine

Ordinary procedures follow a strict call-and-return discipline. A coroutine instead suspends itself and hands control to another coroutine, later resuming exactly where it left off with its state intact, so two routines can advance in step - a structure that does not fit the usual hierarchy of calls.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Equals the number of its distinct counting digits

The radix, or base, of a number system is the count of distinct digits it uses: decimal has ten (0–9) so its radix is 10, binary has two so its radix is 2, hexadecimal sixteen. The radix also fixes each place value, since the \( n \)-th place is worth \( r^n \) - so it is fixed for a given system and need not be even.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Control unit

The control unit selects the next instruction, decodes it, and issues the signals that make the ALU, registers, memory and input/output units carry it out. The ALU performs the arithmetic it is directed to, and registers and memory simply hold values.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Analytical Engine

Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, designed from 1837, was the first design for a general-purpose mechanical computer: a mill for calculation, a store for numbers, and punched cards for both program and data - the elements of a modern machine. The abacus is a much older counting aid and was not designed by Babbage.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A third generation high level language

C is a third-generation language: its statements are written in a human-readable notation and a compiler translates them into machine code, so a program can be moved to another processor by recompiling it. Machine language is the processor’s own binary, and assembly language is its mnemonic form - the first and second generations.

Answer: B

Correct answer: ROM

ROM is non-volatile: its contents are fixed when it is manufactured or programmed and survive with the power switched off, which is why the start-up firmware lives there. RAM loses everything when power is removed. VLSI and LSI describe scales of integration, not kinds of memory.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Optical disk

A CD-ROM stores data as pits and lands pressed into a reflective layer and reads them with a laser beam, so it is an optical disk. Magnetic disks record by magnetising a coating and read it with a head, and a magneto-optical disk combines both techniques - a laser to heat the spot, a magnetic field to write it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: A modem

A modem modulates the computer’s digital bits onto an analogue carrier for the telephone line and demodulates the incoming carrier back into bits - the two halves of its name. A packet is a unit of data and a block a group of records; neither is a device.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Logical mind

Programming is the business of breaking a problem into unambiguous steps and reasoning about what follows from what, so a logical turn of mind matters most. Mathematics and domain knowledge help with particular problems, but the ability to reason through a procedure applies to all of them.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Super computer

A supercomputer stands at the top of the range, built for the greatest possible throughput on scientific work - weather modelling, simulation, molecular studies - with thousands of processors working in parallel. A super-micro is a large microcomputer, a superconductor is a physical phenomenon, and “megaframe” is not a class of machine.